All-District Honor Band Students Recognized By School Board

On Thursday, January 19, the Troup County School Board began their meeting by recognizing All-District Honor Band students from Gardner Newman Middle School (GNMS). Sixteen GNMS students were selected for this honor by the Georgia Music Educators Association in Columbus, Georgia.

Founded in 1938, this association has been heavily involved in music education throughout all of Georgia’s public schools: Briefly stated, our mission is to promote the advancement of music education in Georgia. To do this we sponsor conferences for our teacher members, providing continuing education and professional growth opportunities. For the students of our members we provide performance evaluations for individuals and ensembles including band, choral, and orchestra students at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

In addition to sponsoring events and opportunities for students and teachers, GMEA has an advocacy program that speaks on behalf of the provision and funding of music programs in Georgia’s public and private schools. We advocate for music programs, not for teachers’ jobs and salaries. We monitor pending legislation and policy-making at the local and state levels that would both directly or indirectly affect music education and inform our members about these issues in order to help them and the parents of the students they teach speak to their elected officials about them.

The Georgia Music Educators Association has the fifth largest membership among state music education associations in the United States. The teachers who are our members are dedicated professionals who go far above and beyond what is expected to give their students a love of music that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.

The following students will represent the Troup County School system in February for this event: Flutists: Amy West (who has also advanced to the next level of the State Competition), Seeyeun Lee, Matt Choi, Bella Senter, and Christine Hong.